Obama ‘Pardons’ Michael Jordan For Spelling His Name Wrong Because He’s Jordan

File this one under, “Oops.” In a new profile for New Yorkmagazine, Barack Obama’sformer chief strategist and fellow Chicagoan David Axelrod explains how a gift for the President’s 50th birthday backfired thanks to none other than iconic hoop star Michael Jordan.

A few years ago, when Obama turned 50, Axelrod thought up a perfect gift for his boss in the form of an autographed poster from the Chicago Bulls superstar. As a guy with political connections, Axelrod pulled some strings and got in touch with MJ to make it happen. When the gift came back though, there was a glaring mistake.

“I gave it to the president, and he said, ‘I can’t put this up, he misspelled my name!’” Axelrod told the magazine. “So I said, ‘Fine, I’ll take it.’ ”

When the topic got brought up to Obama himself in a recent interview he took the high road while shrugging off the mistake.

“You know what, Michael will always have a place in my heart,” Obama said, according to Sporting News. “The joy that he gave all of Chicago. He’s actually an early supporter. I think I may have been the first publicly acknowledged contribution he made politically.

“He talks trash on the golf course, I understand even though he’s never played with me…He’s a pretty hyper-competitive guy. Obviously, somebody wasn’t giving him the proper spelling of my name. I’m going to forgive him for that because I have six [NBA] championship memories [with the 1990s Chicago Bulls] that will never go away.”

Meanwhile, it sounds as though Axelrod held onto one of the most unusually rare pieces of sports/presidential memorabilia we can think of.